From the Ashes
by AvalonBane
Summary: Labyrinth AU, Jareth/OC A grieving woman calls for the Goblin King, only to find he isn't entirely what she expected.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm writing this to help myself process my divorce. I haven't written a word in almost two months and I needed to do something to help get my writing mojo back. I obviously hope you like it. But if you don't, please don't be mean about it. A lot of this comes from a very real place.**

 **Genre warnings: SHAMELESS self-insertion. If that bothers you, don't keep reading.**

 **Thank you, please enjoy.**

Alanna sat half-naked in the middle of her kitchen floor. She had been in the process of stress cleaning out the fridge when the stumbled upon the bottle of sweet vermouth in the back. The now empty bottle lay in her lap like a treasured pet as she surveyed the fresh carnage around her.

And entire chocolate cream pie. Gone. Kielbasa leftovers. Gone. Day old pizza. Gone.

Husband. Gone.

 _I'm alone._

The words echoed endlessly through her head. She hunted for silence at the bottom of every booze and food container she could get her hands on, but to no avail. She'd eaten practically a week's worth of food and they still rang in her head like a death rattle.

 _I'm alone again._

Again. Never if, always when. People always left her. She loved so deeply and so fiercely and no one ever wanted it. No one ever wanted her. At least, not forever. Not like they said they would, not like they promised.

Alanna was not an ugly woman. Nor was she particularly contemptible or despised. But she felt like the most despicable, horrible creature ever to curse the planet. People drifted in and out of her life like seasons. Never staying for long, like one dance in a long party. She hated it. All she ever wanted was a place she could be truly loved, truly belong. The neverending transience fueled her self-loathing into a strong and healthy mental illness.

And with the love of her life, casting departing shadows, it consumed her.

They had been together for nearly 5 years. Married for less than two. But he'd have no more of her now. He didn't love her anymore.

He'd lied when he said he was happy, and that who she was was good enough. It had all been a lie. Years of happy and fruitful memories now rotting like toxic waste in her mind. Each one a precious shard of glass cutting her to ribbons from the inside.

She let out a shuddering sigh as she looked around the room in shame and despair. Too exhausted to keep crying, eating, or drinking she hoisted herself off the floor. Precariously wobbling around the discarded wrappers and containers, she let her gaze linger briefly on a sharp kitchen knife. She shook the thought out of her head and aimed vaguely for the direction of the bedroom.

In no time at all she had built a proper nest of pillows, fluffy blankets, and stuffed animals she wasn't sure if she should still love anymore. But she did.

There was Bear, a polar bear to be precise. Gifted to her by her father when she turned 12. He was a most faithful pillow and had held her through many hard times. She imagined him as immeasurably good spirited and loyal. With a deep friendly voice that made him sound just a little bit stupid, but he had hidden depths.

Then there was Morambath, a black panther. Serving as the proxy of an animal companion she'd had in Dungeons and Dragons. Both the character and the toy had been presents from her husband for her birthday a few years ago. He was a silent and vain fellow, but in her mind, he was always reliably loping around the outskirts of their little polyester band of fellows. She made sure he was always placed on a high perch from which he could watch the goings-on.

Next came Onyx. A baby blue dragon. One of those 'just because I love you' gifts from her husband. He wasn't old enough for a proper horde, and he couldn't fly or breathe fire. But nevertheless, he took great pride in guarding her jewelry box. Fearsome in spirit if not in form.

The motley crew all huddled around her now. 4 sets of eyes, one real and three plastic, were bathed in the blue light of her laptop as she watched her favorite film.

The Labyrinth.

She had first seen the film when she was only two years old. Of course, she couldn't understand what the words or images meant. But a few frames got firmly stuck in her head. And until she rediscovered the film at 10 years old, she had no idea where the pictures of crystal bubbles and ball gowns rattling around in her brain came from. When she did find it again, she couldn't stop watching it. Driving her family bonkers with watching it every day, sometimes twice a day. Until she knew every single line like the back of her hand and could watch it in her head during classes. Since then it had always been a favorite. Seeing her through good times and bad. Having done some puppetry in her youth she appreciated the beauty and art in Jim Henson's creation. The music spoke to her on a very deep level. And if David Bowie's voice wasn't enough, there was, of course, his appearance as the Goblin King. A whole generation of girls was punted into puberty by this one part. His otherworldly beauty and intensity never went out of style or dulled as the years past.

Now 29, she was still a captive audience to the 80's glam portrayal of the Fae King.

She fingered the medallion around her neck. The last gift her husband ever gave her. For her birthday just past, one week before he left. It was an exact replica of the pendant of office worn by Jareth in the film. Even though it was forever attached to this painful time, it was still one of her most treasured possessions. And she knew it always would be.

Silent tears streamed down her face. Feeling like she was slowly dissolving. This pain, this loss, this betrayal was so great she could never really tell if she was breathing properly. Everything hurt so much.

If only she could go there, get away from all of this. She clearly didn't belong in the real world. Maybe she could belong there, in the Underground.

Drunk, and not caring a button for sensible thinking or adulting, she suddenly grasped the pendant as tightly as she could. Pain sprung from her thumb where she had accidentally scratched it on the sharp edges, but she barely noticed.

For the first time in many, many years. Alanna wished.

She wished with all her heart. The way only children can. Reaching far down into the tiny, dying part of her soul that could still believe something like the Neverending story was real. That dreams came true. That love could last forever. She wished as hard as she could. Clenching her eyes firmly shut. And spoke words she'd never been foolish enough to utter aloud before now.

"I wish the Goblin King would come and take me away right now."

She held her breath and didn't open her eyes. Just listening. This was the moment. This half second of waiting when all things were possible and anything could happen. This moment was the first hope Alanna had felt in a long time. And she held onto it for as long as she possibly could.

But it passed. Not the slightest stir in the room beside the sounds of the film.

She let out a long, slow, lungful of air and opened her blurry eyes. Letting this small heartbreak merge with the rest.

Blinking rapidly to clear the tears, she focused on getting back to watching the film.

It took her a whole two minutes to notice the mismatched pair of eyes staring back at her. Reflected in the screen from where the face that held them leaned back against the headboard, watching her.

"Well now, this _is_ pathetic." Drawled an alien, melodic voice.

She screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm writing this to help myself process my divorce. I haven't written a word in almost two months and I needed to do something to help get my writing mojo back. I obviously hope you like it. But if you don't, please don't be mean about it. A lot of this comes from a very real place.**

 **Genre warnings: SHAMELESS self-insertion. If that bothers you, don't keep reading.**

 **Thank you, please enjoy.**

* * *

Alanna wasn't exactly sure how she found herself staring up at her feet from her upside down posture on the floor. But old drunk instincts, plus the sharp pain in the back of her head, told her she had probably flung herself there.

"Fucking...OW." She groaned.

A small scoff sounded from on top of the bed. "My, such language. Quite apt for my subjects, actually."

Flip-flopping like a fish, Alanna somehow got her feet under her again and slowly rose to a shaky stand. Her heart was pounding with anticipation at what she might see waiting for her there.

Even if this was some comatose dream or hallucination, she was going to pretend it was real. She silently thanked her body for being just unhinged enough to allow visual nonsense like this to happen. Hoping that whatever caused this wouldn't kill her in turn. At least, not before she got to enjoy the brief respite from misery often to be found in complete madness.

She raised her eyes to the Goblin King and saw...

Well, not David Bowie.

He still had the mismatched eyes and lupine smile, but he was a completely different man otherwise. And yet, he seemed somehow familiar. He was tall, handsome, and well muscled. His dark hair fell in the slightest waves to just above his shoulders. His eyes were not blue, but dark. Glittering with the promise of a thousand honey brown possibilities. She gestured toward the computer screen, still playing the film.

"You're not..." she muttered.

"An 80's glam rock icon?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "Unfortunately no. But Mr. Bowie was probably the closest approximation they could find for this particular encounter. I believe it was a young female in Mr. Hensen's family who first told him the story of how we met, and how she saw me." He flourished a hand over his form.

"Never the same man twice, part of the magic. And the temptation. I appear to each wisher as that which they most imagine they desire. This form for you was by far the most popular. I don't know who this man is or if he even exists outside of your head but he is usually the leading man you picture in every story that you read."

Alanna blinked hard. He was right. Whenever a detailed physical description was absent from any book, or it held any similarity, this was the man she always pictured. In every fantasy, every daydream. Absolutely confounded, she watched him as he sprung from the bed to go look into her vanity mirror. He admired his front and his back and played with his hair a bit.

"I admit, young lady." His voice made her want to run or melt. "You have excellent taste. I'll quite enjoy looking like this. Now..."He gestured for her to sit on the bed, which she did without question. "...to business. Why have you brought me here tonight? It's not just anyone who can call on the Goblin Kingdom these days. You have invoked the talisman of office in blood no less, and the magic of your thoughts has deemed you worthy of my presence, or else I would not have been successfully called." He sat down on the bed next to her. His proximity was highly alarming, but she sat still as a stone.

"Tell me everything."

As if a spell had been cast or lifted she took a comically deep breath and it all fell out of her mouth at once.

"He told me he'd love me forever. for exactly what I was and nothing more. He promised in front of all our family and friends that he would always stand by me. And less than two years later he told me he didn't love me anymore and listed all of my faults that had caused him to tire of me. And he tormented me with that for months before my best girlfriend told me that they had been having an affair and it was all a huge lie. I loved him so desperately and now I'm filled with this big gaping hole where my love and my whole life used to be and oh god please make the pain stop please take me away from here please save me from this despair!"

About halfway through her admission, she had begun to breathe too fast and too deeply. By the last, she had completely collapsed into great heaving sobs of true and irreconcilable loss.

The Goblin King sat completely aghast for a second before he instinctively wrapped his arms around her. He was greatly unsettled by the way she clung to him for dear life. Clinging in truth, to the last tie she had to her hopes and dreams. The last shreds of her childlike purity that had led him here tonight. She had grasped onto those wisps as a lifeline and wasn't letting go. Truly, she was a subject of his kingdom, and slowly he felt his ire rise in response to her misery. His eyes glittered with revenge and his voice lowered dangerously, "What would you ask of me?"

She wrapped her arms tightly around his chest and buried her face away from the world that had betrayed her. "Just take me home, please" she whimpered.

"You know that if I do this thing, there is no coming back."

She flew from his arms in a flurry. At first, it seemed she had changed her mind, but watching her he realized she was merely packing a bag at breakneck speed. A photo album, a few precious keepsakes, and her three stuffed comrades all cradled in her arms found her sitting next to him again with resolve in her face.

"I'm ready."

He produced a crystal with a serious face.

She took it.

Alanna Sowerby was never seen or heard from again in the Above Ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you all for your support.**

 **I'm writing this to help myself process my divorce. It's totally killed my creative mojo. And I needed to do something to help get it back. I obviously hope you like it. But if you don't, please don't be mean about it. A lot of this comes from a very real place.**

 **Genre warnings: SHAMELESS self-insertion. If that bothers you, don't keep reading.**

 **Thank you, please enjoy**

* * *

Alanna came back to consciousness with a complete collection of a headache, stomach ache, and some very strange memories of a dream. The last of which had been someone scooping her up and carrying her over a dreamy threshold as she succumbed to a wave of fatigue and dizziness. Resolving never to drink again, she closed her eyes tightly shut and pulled the covers over her head to shield her from the effervescent light of day creeping through the window. Somewhere from nearby, she heard a door open and shut.

 _Tom_

Habitual instinct told her that her husband had just come home. Maybe he'd forgotten something. Or maybe, maybe he'd come back. More maybe still, it had all been the worst kind of impossible dream and she'd return to a life full of love and promise. A split second of confusion and hope blasted through her as she ripped off the covers and sat up straight.

But the room was not their bedroom from their cute apartment on Samantha St. It was modest and comfortable, but rustic. Like a log cabin in one of those historical recreation parks. In a large space, four warm wood walls housed a bed, desk, small sitting area, and what seemed to be an old-fashioned woodstove that was made of not iron, but stone. One medium window looked out into the leafy green world from above a sink and countertop that jutted practically out of the walls. Hope vanished, but the confusion doubled.

An impressively annoyed yowl sounded from just below her feet.

Suddenly the headache was gone and replaced by frantic alarm as she sat very still, looking at the huge panther sleeping stretched out at the foot of her bed. It gave her something like an indignant look before seeming to decide that this occasion called for a bath. And set about licking its massive, strange, blackish- bluish-purplish paw without paying her any more mind. His mannerisms were instantly familiar.

She raised her hand halfway to her lips as if to stop the absurd question that came tumbling out, but failed entirely.

"M-Mormabath?"

The Moon Panther, an emissary of the moon goddess and denizen of the moonlight realms, raised his intelligent blue eyes to her and ceased his nervous bathing. A low rumbling purr answered her question as he rose, stretched, and lumbered rather funnily over the blankets toward her. His affectionate headbutt nearly knocked her over, but she embraced him tightly anyway. Giggling like a madwoman, she began to fawn over and stroke him like any other house cat.

"I've cracked! How splendid, this has gotta be the nicest padded room I've ever been in. Can't wait to see what happens when the drugs kick in."

Morambath gently bapped her on the nose and she felt only the merest hint of a great claw on her skin. But even so, he let out the most insulted hiss she had ever heard, and he bared his great teeth.

"Watch your language! But, I can't think of how else you or I came to be here..." She trailed off as memories began flooding back. The man of her dreams, with a thousand honey brown promises in his mismatched eyes. One of them, fulfilled.

"It was real? I'm really here?"

Morambath, clearly annoyed, left her to her catatonic state of emergency and leaped off the bed. Padding over to a dark wardrobe. He sat regally on his haunches before it and let out a commanding growl.

The brass latch clicked, and the doors swung open, revealing a small blue scaley something tumbling out in an avalanche of pure bedlam. Morambath pulled back the tips of his paws as if to prevent himself from touching the offensively disorganized pile. He was the very spirit of condescension as the chaos settled, and he quietly looked down upon the small creature struggling to hike up to the top of the newly formed mountain of fabric and trinkets.

It was either a very ambitious lizard or, a very small dragon. His tiny wings fluttered with indignity as he reached the summit and reproached the great cat.

"Ahem! Whooo disturbs my slumber?!" a wheedling falsetto popped from the dragons throat, completely negating anything that might have resembled a threatening tone in his voice. The panther merely flicked his tail and turned his eyes over to the bed.

Following his gaze, the would be Hoard-Master Onyx noticed Alanna staring at him. Pure unadulterated joy dawned over his features "Mistress! You're awake!"

He started to scramble down Mt. Chaos, his wings fluttering again in excited attempts to fly to her. But being a youngling still, he only managed some very enthusiastic hops.

She leapt from the bed and met him halfway, scooping him up off the floor and swinging him into a big hug.

"Oh Mistress, isn't this simply divine? The tall man said I could have the privilege of guarding the closet. And worry you not, Morambath has already done three whole perimeter checks! He was unseen, of course. Oh, it is a fine little estate, Mistress."

"Where are we?" she whispered in awe, settling Onyx comfortably on her shoulder.

Morambath rubbed up against her legs and loped over to the open window in the kitchenette. Following him, casting her eyes over the Forget-Me-Nots blooming in the windowsill, she had her first look into their new world.

They were not alone. That much was obvious instantly. People milled around outside engaged in a hundred chores within a great courtyard surrounded by tidy little renaissance looking tenements like her own. She was on the highest floor, looking down on them.

People, that was the second thing she noticed. All of them were surprisingly very human. All dressed in simple but well-made clothes that were fairly durable and not terribly unattractive. Looking at herself, she noticed she too wore a long tunic of pale blue, brown cotton breeches, and sturdy leather shoes. She still wore the King's emblem, shimmering in the sunlight. However, there didn't seem to be much deviation in the levels of finery on the people. Glancing about it seemed all of them were of similar wealth and class. Comfortable, but not noble. In fact, her necklace was the finest thing she could see.

On impulse, she hid it under her tunic.

"It is a sort of halfway house, Mistress," Onyx explained.

"Halfway between what and what?" she murmured.

"We are in the Underground, but not yet within the Labyrinth. It's like an Aboveground embassy of sorts. Many humans have come to the Underground over the ages. So many humans were born here. And they have their own community. And this is it! It's called Skyhaven. At least, that's what we've been able to find out so far. We would never truly venture out without you, Mistress!"

Alanna gave them both rewarding scritches behind the ears."I appreciate that, boys. One thing's for sure, I sure don't want to do anything rash. Well, more rash than wishing myself away to a Fae Lord's dominion that is. I haven't decided whether I'm the luckiest woman alive, or the most foolish. But I sure am glad to have you two here with me."

For several long and silent moments, she simply watched the goings on from the safety of that window. Amiable people going about their day. Smiling at each other, trading harmless gossip and mostly good news, being polite and predictable. She had the slow, strange sensation of having been dropped into one of those picturesque snow globe villages.

It was normal.

It was safe.

It was clean.

It was wrong.

Familiar lilting ghosted across the shell of her ear.

"Let's have a game, shall we?"


End file.
